While ～てもいい ( = temoii) is just asking a permission of what you do, ～てもらってもいい ( = temoratte moii) literally means “Would you allow me to do something” and it has a connotation of “Would you mind me doing something” and sounds more polite.

Hello Maggie Sensei,
I was having trouble with this line in a song:
その腕で抱き締めてもくれやしない
My best guess would be, “Those arms would never embrace me.”
However, literally it would be “Even if those arms embraced me, doing that favor is really not.”
The first part seems to me to imply that the embracing happens, which then the second part would negate in my interpretation, which doesn’t really make any sense.
Is my interpretation completely wrong, or is that kind of conditional okay in Japanese?
Thank you!

Okay, thanks. I didn’t think the subject was the arms, I just was rewording it so it sounded better in English.
How did you get the “don’t even” out of that construction? What in the grammar tipped you off to use those words and give that meaning?
Thanks!

I actually have one more question, about a couple of lines (from this song, btw: http://vocaloidlyrics.wikia.com/wiki/%E5%8F%8D%E8%8A%BB%E3%81%AE%E5%8D%B0%E8%B1%A1_(Hansuu_no_Inshou) ), if you don’t mind. I really don’t know what to make of them.
本当は噛み締めてなんかいやしない
明日の日付も今日も飲み込んじまえ
咀嚼の時間も 緊急停車にも気付きはしない
“I really didn’t understand it, but tomorrow and today, I understood completely. When I understood, I hadn’t realized (that I understood it(?)) when we came to an emergency stop” is my best guess at what these mean.
I’m really confused about what they’re talking about here, especially because all words for understand also mean “chew,” which really confused me.
Thank you again for your help, sorry to bother you again!

Sorry if my question was confusing. I guess what I was asking was if my interpretation was correct, and if there is any special meaning to the fact that “chew” is used so many times (I understand if it’s just a metaphor; I was just thinking that maybe there is some cultural/grammatical significance to this that I wasn’t grasping).
I understand completely that you can’t translate; I wasn’t looking for a translation.
Thanks.

I’ve been using and reading your lessons since I began to study further the Japanese language. There’s something I need to ask and hopefully you could answer this.

There’s a grammar 必要がある so from what I can understand based on the pattern itself it’s “there is a need to VERB” or “need to VERB”. Then I remembered having a previous lesson with なければならない and なければいけない which have similar meanings.

From what I learned, なければならない is used when you have to do something even if you don’t want to, and なければいけない is used to express that you have to do something no matter what. So now, what does 必要がある mean?

Furthermore, if turned negative it becomes 必要はない translating to “There is no need” or “You don’t need to~” depending on the context. Then there’s なくてもいい which from what I learned from my language class was “You don’t need to~”. I also wanted to know the difference between the two.

I hope you could provide me some insight and better explanation about these. I really wanted to learn more about Japanese and even grammar books like Genki doesn’t cover much of this.

I got this sentence from Doraemon. Nobita is asking a lot of questions so Doraemon says this to him.

いっぺんに (all at once)
聞かれても (guessing it’s ask in this sentence and it’s in te-form passive. If Doraemon is the passive subject then he’s the one being asked all at once.)
困るな (guessing Doraemon is just saying な at the end of the sentence and it’s not conjugated as 困るな.)

I don’t understand what role ても plays in this sentence. My Japanese friend can’t explain it to me. I understand that the basic idea is that Doraemon doesn’t want Nobita to ask so many questions at once because it’s bothering him. But I kind of wish I could break it down to a rough translation to understand how everything is interacting.

＠Zack
It roughly means,
Even if you ask me all the questions at once, I can’t answer them right away.

So the function of this ても is “even if”
困る means ”to be in trouble”/ “to be puzzled”/ It is annoying” (depending on the context.)

The other point of this sentence is 聞かれる is a passive form. As I explained in my passive form lesson, passive form sometimes shows negative connotation.
So Doraemon was not happy to be asked many questions all at once.

Thank you very much! I think what my problem is is that I try to translate directly into English a lot of the time. So I would have translated this to something like, “Even if you are asking me (all the questions) at once, I will be bothered.” Which just sounds kind of weird because the second part isn’t something unexpected.

You’re welcome. Yes, the direct translation is “I will be bothered” but as you said, it is not natural.
A lot of time, you don’t translate 困る with its literal meaning, “to be bothered”
You just have to translate the sentence depending on the context.
It is difficult/hard for me to do ~ = (there is no way that)I can do ~ / I can’t do ~ / I don’t want to do that. /I won’t do ~ .

Hi, I came across your website because I am trying to understand the different usages of “ても”. I have noticed that you’ve already covered ”てもいい”. Also, I noticed on the comment you mentioned ”ても” can mean “even if” depending on the context. Can you give another example for that? One more thing, I am checking out these lyrics to a song…and I have noticed the usage of ”ても”; however, I don’t think its context. How is this ”ても” used in these lyrics? It’s below. Thanks.
どんなに笑っても
ここに君はいない
この笑顔 この涙も意味ない

Hi sensei,
I am always bothered by this question: does the “も” particle here also suggests a meaning of “as well” or “too” in English? Or is it just one of those words that is a little difficult to translate? If not, can you briefly explain why it is used here?
By the way, I’ve seen some native Japanese speaker say 例文も添えていただけるとありがたいです。But isn’t there “no reference” to another subject, so it should just be 例文を…? And is 例文も一緒に添えていただけるとありがたいです correct as well?

2. “何をやっても妻に怒られる。
No matter what I do, I make my wife angry.” I’m having problems with 怒る, it’s intransitiv or transitiv, so it’s a bit confusing:

彼は怒っている- He is angry.
彼を怒らせる – I make him angry.
彼に怒らせられる- I am made angry by him.
彼を怒っている – I scold him. or: I am angry at him. (?)
彼に怒られる – I am scolded by him. or: I am angered by him. (??) but your translation is: i make him angry (but why, isn’t it passive??? 絶望した~)

3. I read the following sentence: スズメバチを見つけても、手などを動かして蜂を遠くへ行かせようとしてください。
I don’t quite understand the “temo” here. “Even if, no matter what, whatever” etc. make no real sense to me, as it is a general advice, isn’t it?

元気なの？→元気？／元気ですか？
（You use なの when you haven’t heard from someone for a long time and worry about that person whether they are doing all right.)
そちらの天気はいかがなの？→いかがですか？ is more natural

ここはすごく暑く死ぬって思うんだよ→ここはすごく暑くて死にそうです。
地獄に住んでいるでしょうか。→地獄に住んでいるみたいです。
とにかく、レッスンは便利で教えてくれてありがとう！→It will be better to separate into two sentences to make it sounds more natural. とにかく、このレッスンは便利です。教えてくれてありがとう。

直してくれてありがとう！
To not be mistaken, from here on I’ll use English.
There are so many grammar points in Japanese that I messed up all of them lol.
About that sentence, I wanted to say: Whatever lesson you make, it’s always very interesting, useful and easy to understand. But the corrected sentence looks much better.
BTW, about this 死にそう, if I want to say: I’m going to melt; or I’m gonna to fall asleep; do I make it the same way as 死にそう?

As long as you know what I wrote in the remarks,you can say that.
(→Though we hear this usage a lot in conversation (especially among young people), this expression may offend some people because it sounds a bit condescending.)

Good evening Sensei! ^^ Thank you for this post. It’s so useful! And you’re a very great teacher.^^
I have a question. I would like to say to a boy: “Your smile is so cute.” Could you please tell me that if this sentence correct? -> 笑顔はめっちゃ可愛いです! Thank you for your help in advance. ありがとうございます ^^

Oh sorry.. “It’s on the request list” means I haven’t made the lesson yet but I will in future.
Actually that will be my final goal…
It is going to be a very tough lesson for me to make. There is even a book on the difference between が and は